Fall Break in New York City

We decided to spend a few days in the city for the kids' Fall Break. Here, the kids are on the Red Steps at Times Square just a few steps away from our hotel.



We ate at Hard Rock Cafe under Jimmy Hendrix's purple velvet suit. (The kids had no idea who he was.)



But Katherine, our new saxophone player, was impressed with Bill Clinton's sax on the wall next to us.



We also went to Ripley's Believe It Or Not. From the time we entered, Isaac was convinced it was a haunted house, as you can tell by the look of terror on his face. This is how he looked the entire time we were there.




At least Scott enjoyed his time there.




I've no clue what this is. But it's kinda funny.



On our last day, we ventured out of Manhattan and went to the Bronx Zoo. Isaac loved the Bug Carousel. Of course, he had to find a green bug - his favorite color.



Here, Dylan is returning from feeding the peacock. She was determined to touch the thing and after a few minutes had it eating out of her hand (literally).



As I recall, this was after leaving the Bird House. Go figure.



This picture is so funny. Isaac was wiggling around on the train ride home and the conductor came by and played along with us pretending that he was in trouble. As you can tell, he bought it...hook, line, and sinker.



His pitiful look made the guy feel so bad that he even let Isaac wear his hat. I've never seen a little boy look so relieved as Isaac did when he found out he wasn't really in trouble!

Happy Halloween Part 2

We spent the earlier part of Halloween at the church's trunk-or-treat. As a family of aliens, we landed our spacecraft on a very windy day and it almost blew away without us!



Later on, for more trick-or-treating, we had Supergirl...



Batman...



and...Alien Tween Queen.



Ready for candy...



and we got plenty.



But Batman was more interested in the Burger King cheeseburger offered by Alien Mom.



Supergirl and her sidekick, Wonderdog, aka Amy, outlasted the rest of us. (Scott practically crawled back home.)



It was a long, fun day. Now, what to do with all that chocolate? I think we can figure something out.

Happy Halloween Part 1

Some earlier Halloween fun included Dylan (Vampire Princess) and friends dressing up for the Haunted High School.






Isaac (Bat Man) had a party and parade at his preschool.






Here, Bat Man and Thomas the Tank tried hard to convince another little boy to wear his costume, but he wouldn't budge.

At Least It Was Small

On Friday, when Isaac was playing in the yard, he found a little snake. He was so excited, and he immediately started begging and pleading to keep it as a pet. Hands crossed, puppy dog eyes, kisses on my cheek. He tried all the tricks that usually work, but I wasn't budging on this one.

We agreed to let him keep it until his sisters came home from school so he could show it to them. But no touching. Snakes can bite, and we don't touch them or pick them up.

Then, big sister comes home, looks in the bucket, and says, "Oh, it's not poisonous", and promptly picks it up for all to see.

Isaac's Farm Field Trip

Excitement! Isaac's first ride on a big yellow school bus!



This is his best buddy, Varun.



This old sheep was the only animal he would feed. The goats had big horns 'to butt you with', like in The Three Billy Groats Gruff.






And then we found... tractors.



From that point on, all Isaac wanted to do was ride the tractors.



And ride some more.



And maybe plow through them "bumper car" style. (Followed by a victory pose, of course.)



I finally dragged him away from the tractors to pick out a pumpkin.



But when I turned around, he had escaped back to the tractors again!

Something to think about...

October Already?

I blinked, and suddenly we're halfway through October. We've been busy, mostly with school and the endless - and winless - battle against the leaves in the yard.

Isaac is enjoying himself at school. When the firemen visited and discussed dialing 911 in an emergency, Isaac raised his hand and said, "But I don't have a cell phone". He also insists that it's 9-9-1, not 9-1-1.

Katherine is already learning to play her saxophone, and is in the process of getting her "bracelets" on her teeth. As of yesterday, she has a spacer wired across the roof of her mouth that requires me to insert a key to expand it at bedtime. Tonight will be my first attempt, and with the doctor warning that it could cause her nose to bleed, I'm majorly dreading it. Of course, Scott is out of town, so that leaves Dylan and Isaac to assist. We may need that cell phone to call 991.

Dylan is loving 6th grade. Her favorite class right now is industrial technology where she's been busy building her own self propelled car, including using a torch to solder the pieces together. Brave teacher, right?

picture note: The apple picking actually occurred on a warmer September day. Very different from the 32 degree temperature this morning!